It’s hard to select a new family. That’s how Rose Fahimi Ighani and her husband Paul Webber view the process of interviewing residents for their new adult family home in Bonney Lake.

“We’re looking at people who have similar hobbies and interests,” Ighani said. “We’re looking at what medical conditions they have and how those might interact with other people.”

“We want people who will become a family and a team,” Webber said.

The home, called Whispering Rose, is a small facility for retirees and residents with special needs converted from a one-story single family house on 181st Avenue East. It is slated to open in September.

The home can support six residents in five bedrooms—four single rooms and a double—and it is set on the front end of three-quarters of an acre.

“Enough that we could put up a second building,” Ighani said. “Not yet, but sometime in the future.”

Ighani and Webber both come from a hospitality background, but in categories other than adult residential care. Ighani is known in the Bonney Lake area for the most recent restaurant that she owned and operated, Bistro Thyme. Webber co-owned the restaurant, is a local real estate agent and worked in the hotel industry when he lived in southern California.

The facility’s name comes from a nickname Ighani received working as a volunteer for another adult home, earned because of her affinity for working with the residents.

It took more than seven months of work to obtain the adult family home permit, which required new windows and railings to be installed in the 2,100-square foot building. Ighani and Webber also installed new carpet flooring and skylights in most of the rooms.

Services provided by Whispering Rose will include housekeeping, meals, laundry, grocery shopping, medicine supervision and personal assistance for those who have trouble eating or bathing on their own.

A major goal of Ighani’s will be to foster an active lifestyle, she said.

“I would like to take them to the senior center for some activities,” she said. “We have puzzles, games, gardening, cooking, very light exercise, indoor and outdoor trips to the mall.”

“Basically anything other than sitting and watching television,” Webber interjected.

The facility will charge $2,600 per month for room, board and services.

They are at the point where they are ready to begin admitting candidates, Webber said, and they will likely have a grand opening for residents and their families sometime in September.

Whispering Rose is located at 7021 181st Ave E. Ighani can be reached at 253-347-1167 or whisperingrose99@gmail.com.